How do you name your spaceships?

[p1t1o]

Like this:

I stand up quickly, propelling my chair backwards.

I put both arms in the air (so my body is a "Y" shape") 

Then with my face to the skies I yell "IN THE NAME OF THE MERCURY 7, THE JACKSON 5 AND THE APOLLO 11, IIIIIII NAAAAAAAME THEEEEEEEEE....."

Then I sit down and type in whatever I want to name the ship.

***

(heueheuheuheuheuhue)

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by p1t1o

[BoPET]

It's quite complicated actually. No THAT complicated, but still:

Space Stations - SciFi authors (Arthur Clarke, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, etc).

Deep space probes - Siblings of gods which gave name to real life planets, e.g.: Jool - Zeus/Jupiter - Vulcan, Minerva, Hercules, Bellona, etc.

Manned Missions - something cool related to celestial bodies which I am going to visit or space missions in general (like Kerbollo)

Bases - names of famous rocket scientists/astronauts, eg Korolyov Base, Armstrong Base.

Satellites - by their main function (comsats, experiments, contracts + some indexes)

KSPI-related: N- index for anything contatining fission reactors, F-  - fusion, A - antimatter. (So that's easy to check them and their reactors depletion rates)

Beam power network satellites - "Icarus".

 

[Parpaza]

Quite simple. I give them a letter or small phrase that describes the vessel series.

Milestone Vessels (i.e Exploration Vessels) - A-1, A-2, A-3 etc...

Tourism Vessels - V-1, V-2, V-3, V-4 etc...

Satellites - RadarSat I, ComSat I, ScanSat II etc...

And basically yeah, a small simple phrase or letter. Then using a vessel manager I tag them with the appropriate series. This makes it really easy sort vessels and find them.

[JacobJHC]

On 1/14/2017 at 10:18 PM, Spacetraindriver said:

Kerlympic, Kertanic...

Kritannic?

[Spacetraindriver]

5 minutes ago, JacobJHC said:

Kritannic?

One does not simply add K to the beginning of every word.

[Kerbinchaser]

I just name them after planets of famous people. Sometimes, I just screw it and choose a random name. For instance, one day I could have the "Discovery I," 

but the next I have the "S.S waffles." 

[max_creative]

The KSS Something.  

[Kerbinchaser]

13 minutes ago, max_creative said:

The KSS Something.  

LOL. 

[HalcyonSon]

Planes usually get "Kerb-" and something related to the engine.  "Jet" for the Juno, "fan" for the Wheasley, etc.  Then a descriptor such as "Science," "LD" for Long Distance, "HI" for HIgh Altitude, etc.

Satellites are simple descriptors of the body they orbit and their function.  "Kerbin Polar Surveyor," "Mun CommSat 1," "Early 180 Incline Contract," "Kerbin Far Out Comms."  The last two actually apply to an early satellite contract that I re-purposed into a test platform for a comm relay in a polar orbit (around 83Mm) at the edge of the Kerbin system.

Early rocket designs that I know I'll improve later on say so "Early 1.25m Mun Tourism," "Early 2.5m Lander," etc.

More complicated missions have more descriptive names such as "Mun Biome Hopper Carrier" and their multi-part payloads get simplified "MBH Rover 1."  

Unhappily, one of the more common names in my career is "Klaw."  "Minmus Science Return Klaw," "Early Polar Commsat Klaw," "Minmus Scrap Return Klaw," "Mun Rescue Klaw 3."  These all refer to a basic design that gets slight tweaks depending on the mission requirement.  My "Klaw Return Vessel 2" gets a lot of use and called a lot of different names and I could practically launch it in my sleep.

Edited January 20, 2017 by HalcyonSon

[Spricigo]

 

When I design a vessel I chose a 'semi-random' name, it may be a animal, mythological creature, god or famous person (e.g Owl). I use launch numberer mod, thus same design get a number for each actual launch (Owl, Owl 2, Owl 3). For small adjust in the design roman numeral is added (Owl II, Owl III, Owl IV). and finally, for satellites I add the remaining deltaV so I know it can do a reposition contract (Owl II 4-2150).

 

[HalcyonSon]

It really is unfortunate that efficient rocket design doesn't lend itself to Star Wars names for vessels.  "Uppercase I" and "Lowercase l" don't have the same presence as "X-Wing."  "Long tube full of commsats and unmanned rovers" doesn't work as well as "Star Destroyer" and "Probe Droid."

[Slam_Jones]

I usually go with a Description and Number style for the craft itself.  IE  - Research Station II, Heavy Miner I, etc.

Once I launch them and they reach orbit, I'll usually change it a bit.  For stations, I've been using the name of the "lead" scientist onboard.  For example, in my career game I have Duna Research - Tatiana and Eve Research - Kerwise as my two main stations (in Duna and Eve orbit, respectively).

[Leafbaron]

I usually name the ship for its purpose. That way I know what and why it is where it is. 

[RandomGamer123]

[deleted]

Edited August 4, 2023 by RandomGamer123

[Norcalplanner]

In the past I've been very boring and descriptive - think " Mun polar scansat I" and similar. In my current career, I am drawing names shamelessly from the ranks of British naval ships and aircraft, with the odd "in joke" and a Roman numeral. Lifters tend to be named after ships whose names are inspirational adjectives, such as Glorious I, Illustrious II, and Courageous III. Stations tend to be named after ships whose names are descriptive nouns such as Pioneer, Conqueror, and Thunderer. Specific spacecraft tend to be named after ships and planes with bird names such as Eagle II or Martlet I. Interplanetary craft are named after gods and heroes, such as Hermes and Hercules. And all of my commonly used upper stages have some sort of Centaur connection, such as Ajax and Achilles.

[RandomUser]

The way I generally name my craft isn't nearly as good as the other posters here. 

It usually consists of random characters, followed by around 4 numbers.  That is for aircraft.  For rockets, I'll use something like the planet's initial character, initial character of the crafts objective, and a series of numbers if applicable, or something interesting if it is a special craft. 

=Example of aircraft names=

C-1125

Comet M1

Comet M2E

FF-1120

Luft Drone 1

TS-A1

As you can see, it is nothing special. 

=Shuttles are boring mostly.

Lithium Shuttle (Shuttle strapped to a rocket)

S2-A (The regular shuttle)

=Rockets=

Ares Telescope

DP-1 Dres (Dres Probe 1)

DP-1 Duna Rover (Duna Probe 1 Rover)

DSM-1 through 5 (Duna Station Module)

JP-1 (Jool Probe 1)

KTS-15

Laythe Explorer (Craft used for sending the "Laythe Atmospheric Landing Module and Habitat Module Mk1)

Mun Net

Essentially, those are just a few.  Some are actually named something unique, some are named uselessly, most of which I neglected to enter in, excepting KTS-15. 

[Zeiss Ikon]

Since restarting the game (see my "most painful" entry), I've pursued a vessel naming scheme roughly similar to British military aircraft naming.  For instance, my docking practice vessel was named Neptune 1 (got that name because of the pickle-fork configuration to launch two Mk. 1 Command Pods, each with its own Reliant engine and tank, simultaneously).  When that brought up staging issues (focus stayed on the "service" stage when staging off the capsule from the second tine, and if done after reentry starts -- to experiment with burning very late to adjust landing location -- "cannot switch while in atmosphere" results in death of the pilot due to inability to deploy parachutes), Neptune 2 was born, with the two capsules launched in tandem so that building up from below wouldn't cause KSP to see the capsule as a disposable part attached to the tank.  Following experience with the extremely flexible stack making the launch very, very cranky to fly (as in, started tumbling around 200 m/s, even with RCS and SAS enabled), Neptune 2 Mk. II followed (many struts added), then Neptune 2 Mk. II Mod 1 (added RCS fuel capacity in both pod stages) and the current design, Neptune 2 Mk. II Mod 2 (added a fairing which encloses almost all of the 1.25m section, closing at the base of the top RCS tank), which looks slick and clean on the pad and is "almost SSTO" (requires a modest burn to circularize the two capsule stages while leaving the booster in a decaying orbit; same thing with a single capsule stage would easily SSTO, possibly with fuel left to deorbit).  Constant apologies to the second pilot, who rides the boost phase with no view due to the fairing.

Next iteration will replace the "back seat" capsule stage with a Munar lander (now that I know how to fly a rendezvous and dock without wasting immense amounts of monopropellant) and add a stage for circularization, transMunar insertion, and Munar capture; it will be Selene 1, and will have appropriate Mark and Mod designations as the initial design is improved.  Obviously, the same vessel design will serve to visit Minmus, and if I find there's a lot of dV to spare, might go to Duna/Ike or, with a little gravity assist, Dres.

[something]

I usually refer to deities/titans/places of Greek, Norse or Roman mythology, if the craft are going to be sort of standard vehicles. The Mun launch vehicle and capsule are called Alfheim, the Minmus LV is called Ares but has seen a decline in use since space planes (Mjølnir, Heimdal and Freya) in connection with a LKO-Minmus fuel ferry do the job much cheaper.

Spacecraft that are designed for a single purpose (mostly scientific missions) obtain a descriptive name or some some sort of abbreviation. Most of the time they're sort of cynical approaches  to the need to come up with cool names in science in order to recieve funding. There's a mission called LOSS (Laythe Oceanographic and Surface Satellite) on its way to the Joovian system.

[Moh1336]

My naming is fairly simple, I name it what it is.

I often take lengthy breaks, so it's just easier to name it by purpose so that when I come back to career I know exactly what is in orbit of X Y Z and what the crafts are without having to type lengthy descriptions.

SSTOs I will give names in the Star Trek style of KSS X.

[Squidiness]

I almost always name my ships after Greek gods and goddesses, since there are so many of them and they all sound kind of cool

[Garrett Kerman]

I still am sending out probes to the other planets in the Kerbol system, so I name them accordinging.

Moho: Mercury (ship number)

Eve: Venus (ship number)

Duna: Mars (ship number)

     Ike: Phobos-Deimos (ship number)

And so on.

[something]

 

Yeah. There are many Greek gods,  however, there are subtle differences between say Ares and Hermes, so I just chose to obtain my names from a wider array of sources. Also, the concept of snow and ice seems to be completely unknown to the Mediterranean deities, which is basically the reason I included the Norse multitude of deities in order to name missions to the outer reaches of the Kerbol system. Also it is pretty educational to read through Wikipedia articles of these mythological figures...

[panzerknoef]

I just give them the name of what they do... Boring right. 

Only my planes have a somewhat convention to their names. 

Ordinary planes are just K-[model number].(adaptation number of model)

Space planes have the same but instead of just K-... It's K-S...

[maas1248]

I really just kinda make junk names for rockets (rinky dink, estupidez), but I have a pretty good convention for aircraft;

Mv- (prefix)

Suffixes (numbers):

0-99 = Military Aircraft

100-199 = Military Support Aircraft

200-299 = Non-denominational Aircraft

300-399 = Passenger

400-499 = Helicopters/VTOLs

1000+ = Crackpot Stuff (Rocket planes, forward-swept wing aircraft etc.)

cheers

[kolan4ik88]

I'm always typing the mission goal, planet or moon. In which program I make it (Duna colony -DSD, Moho short visit) 

Then I typing the number of modification and class of the ship (Rocket, SSTO, plane, lander)